Ask the Doc: How long do steroids stay in your system?

When people refer to ‘steroids’ they usually mean androgenic steroids, like testosterone, so let’s concentrate on those.

Testosterone is metabolised by the body quite quickly. That’s why testosterone peaks when you wake up in the morning and falls during the day.

A single dose of testosterone can be cleared from the body within three to six hours. For testosterone levels to be increased for a longer time, you need to take different forms of testosterone in different ways, like gels and injections into muscle. These can keep testosterone levels up for anywhere from around a day to months.

Testosterone isn’t something you take like aspirin or paracetamol to treat a headache. It takes a while for testosterone to have its effects, whether it's for treatment of androgen deficiency or appearance or performance gains. The psychological effects of testosterone treatment appear within a few weeks, whereas physical effects take months to years.

The longer you use steroids and the higher the doses you take, the longer it will take for their levels and the effects on your body, to wear off. In some cases, the problematic effects of steroids can take years to go away.